Speak Mandarin like a Chinese by repeating certain words (Part 1)

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, time to get my snowpea seeds planted in the garden. With luck there will be sweet pea shoots (豆苗 dòu miáo ) and crunchy pea pods (豆荚 dòujiá) to enjoy during summer. When it comes to waiting to harvest the fruit of your labor, time crawls … like a snail. To celebrate the occasion, there you have it, a green snail (蜗牛 wōniú).

Snails move slowly, very slowly. Simply using the word 慢 (màn) doesn’t do justice to its suggishness. Perhaps one might imagine it crawling forward at one mile per hour, stopping every minute to swallow some saliva before moving on. That is the picture painted by the adverb 慢吞吞地 (màn tūn tūn de very slowly).

Now compare the following two sentences:

她慢慢地吃饭.
Tā màn man de chīfàn.
She eats the meal slowly.

她慢吞吞地吃饭.
Tā màn tūn tūn de chīfàn.
She eats the meal very slowly.

The exaggeration in the second sentence adds interest to the description as well as authenticity to your spoken Chinese.

Repeating certain words in Chinese can produce a number of diverse effects. It could help smooth out a sentence, pinpoint emphasis, indicate plurarity, or achieve exaggeration (as we’ve seen above).

When referring to your older brother, you would normally say 我的哥哥 (wǒ de gēgē) instead of just 我的哥 (wǒ de gē). Similarly, when referring to your older brother’s wife, you woud say 我的嫂嫂 (wǒ de sǎosǎo) or 我的嫂子 (wǒ de sǎo zi). It sounds less abrupt than just uttering 嫂 once. See Chapter 3 of “Learn Chinese through Songs and Rhymes” for how to address the various members in the family as well as the extended family.

Many adjectives and adverbs are also repeated to improve the fluidity of the speech. Some examples:

弯弯的眉毛 (wān wān de méimáo) curved eyebrows
这件事怪怪的. (Zhè jiàn shì guài guài de.) This thing is weird.
慢慢地工作 (màn man dì gōngzuò) working slowly
轻轻地哼着歌 (qīng qīng de hēngzhe gē) humming a song softly or gently
呆呆地坐着 (dāi dāi de zuòzhe) sitting blankly

Everyone knows 人 (rén) means a person. When you double this word, the meaning changes to people. Similarly, when you say 天 (tiān day) twice in a row, it means every day or daily. Here are some additional examples: 日日 (rì rì day by day), 夜夜 (yè yè every night), 年年 (nián nián every year), (个个 gè gè all), 某某 (mǒu mǒu so and so – person), 处处 (chùchù everywhere).

Like 慢吞吞 (màn tūn tūn), there are many expressions containing repeated sounds to further characterize a description. Here are a few examples:

凶巴巴 (xiōng bābā) fierce
软趴趴 (ruǎn pā pā) soft and limp
软绵绵 (ruǎnmiánmián) soft as cotton
硬棒棒 (yìng bang bàng) hard as a rod
笑眯眯 (xiàomīmī) smiling genuinely, squinting the eyes
笑哈哈 (xiào hāhā) laughing heartily
热乎乎 (rèhū hū) hot or very warm
胖嘟嘟 (pàng dū dū) chubby
雨蒙蒙 (yǔ méng méng) rainy and drizzly
湿答答 (shī dā dá) dripping wet – Do you hear the sound of the water dripping?
湿淋淋 (Shī línlín) showery wet
光秃秃 (guāngtūtū) bare or bald
乱糟糟 (luànzāozāo) very messy
脏兮兮 (zāng xī xī) icky dirty
假惺惺 (jiǎxīngxīng) hypocritical
黑黝黝 (hēiyǒuyǒu) black, dark, dusky
雄赳赳气昂昂 (xióngjiūjiū qì áng’áng) courageous and spirited

那是猫哭老鼠, 假惺惺.
Nà shì māo kū lǎoshǔ, jiǎxīngxīng.
That’s a cat crying over a mouse, hypocrisy.

我们的战士雄赳赳气昂昂.
Wǒmen de zhànshì xióngjiūjiū qì áng’áng.
Our soldiers are brave and spirited.

For those of you who love four-character Chinese expressions, here is a bunch of easy ones:

日日夜夜 (rì rì (yè yè) day and night, all the time
男男女女 (nánnánnǚnǚ) men and women, or male and female persons
婆婆妈妈 (pópomāmā) garrulous or fussy like old women
马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhǔhǔ) so-so, passable, sloppy
风风雨雨 (fēng fēngyǔ yù) the trials of life
嘻嘻哈哈 (xīxīhāhā) laughing cheerfully
哭哭啼啼 (kūkūtítí) crying ones eyes out
来来回回 (lái láihuí hui) back and forth, to and fro
来来往往 (lái lái wǎngwǎng) passing by in great numbers
扭扭捏捏 (niǔ niǔniē niē) shy, not self-assured or straightforward
战战兢兢 (zhànzhànjīngjīng) trembling with fear, exercising caution
是是非非 (shì shìfēi fēi) scandals or gossips
拖拖拉拉 (tuō tuōlā lā) procrastinating, dilatory, dragging one’s feet

你准备好了吗？不要总是拖拖拉拉.
Nǐ zhǔnbèi hǎole ma? Bùyào zǒng shì tuō tuōlā lā.
Are you ready? Don’t keep dragging your feet.

圣帕特里克节快乐!
Shèng pàtèlǐkè jié kuàilè!
Happy St. Paatrick’s Day!

Chinese idioms that follow the AABB pattern (1)

Have you ever wondered why many Chinese idioms contain exactly four characters? It’s because a phrase with four syllables simply sounds good, much like the four quarter beats in a measure of a musical composition. Well, that’s just one of the reasons. Written classical Chinese is concise, perhaps to minimize the amount of time and effort it takes to write the characters using a brush dipped in ink one makes by grinding the ink stick on a wet stone slab. A four-character phrase is short in length but can still accommodate a multitude of combinations of single-character and double-character words to form a meaningful expression or even summarize an entire story. Traditional Chinese people like to have things 四平八稳 (sìpíngbāwěn), i.e. very stable, well grounded and well organized. A four-character phrase is like a table that is flat on all four sides and stable in all eight directions. Therefore, generations of students studied text books filled with four-character phrases and idioms, and scholars took pride in being able to judiciously or cleverly incorporate choice idioms in their stereotyped essays. Many of the Chinese idioms are made up of pair of four-character phrases, which further strengthen the robust structure.

Today we will look at a few Chinese idioms that are relatively easy to learn because each consists of just two different characters in duplicate. Most of the examples below are adjectives or adverbial phrases.

You’re probably already familiar with 马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhūhū), which means so-so, not too bad, not very good,or being careless. When someone asks how you’ve been, you could use this phrase as a response.

三三两两 (sānsānliǎngliǎng) means in twos and threes.

他们三三两两一道回家.
Tāmen sānsānliǎngliǎng yīdào huíjiā.
They went home together in twos and threes.

慢慢腾腾 (mànmànténgténg) means unhurried or slowly.

他做事慢慢腾腾.
Tā zuòshì mànmànténgténg.
He takes his time in doing things.

鬼鬼祟祟 (guǐguǐsuìsuì) and 偷偷摸摸 (tōutōumōmō) both refer to doing things stealthily or covertly. The opposite is 堂堂正正 (tángtángzhèngzhèng), which means to be open and aboveboard. This phrase also describes an honest and dignified person, with nothing to hide or to be ashamed of.

轰轰烈烈 (hōnghōnglièliè) describes doing something on a grand scale with a bang, as in a revolution.

干干净净 (gāngānjìngjìng) means clean and tidy, or spick-and-span. 规规矩矩 (guīguījǔjǔ) means punctilious or following rules to a T.

断断续续 (duànduànxùxù) means intermittently.

他们断断续续通了几次信.
Tāmen duànduànxùxù tōng le jǐ cì xìn.
They wrote to each other off and on a few times.

战战兢兢 (zhànzhànjīngjīng) literally translates to “trembling with fear”. It describes a state of being extremely cautious.

舒舒服服 (shūshūfúfú) means comfortably.

他舒舒服服地睡了个午睡.
Tā shūshūfúfú di shuì le gè wǔshuì.
He took a sweet nap.

叽叽喳喳 (jījīzhāzhā) means to twitter like birds.

嘻嘻哈哈 (xīxīhāhā) means laughing and acting happily.

她们叽叽喳喳, 嘻嘻哈哈, 非常快乐.
Tāmen jījīzhāzhā, xīxīhāhā, fēicháng kuàilè.
They chattered and laughed, feeling very happy.

哭哭啼啼 (kūkutítí) is to weep and wail incessantly.

她哭哭啼啼地回家去了.
Tā kūkutítí di huíjiā qù le.
She went home crying and wailing along the way.

扭扭捏捏 (niǔniǔniēniē affected, not straightforward, unmanly) describes the mincing manners of some people, particularly ladies.

他扭扭捏捏, 似乎不好意思.
Tā niǔniǔniēniē, sìhu bùhǎoyìsi.
He acts hesitantly, appearing to be shy and ill at ease.

On the other hand, 大大方方 (dàdàfāngfāng) means to behave graciously, naturally and unaffected.

她大大方方地伸出手来.
Tā dàdàfāngfāng di shēnchū shǒu lái.
She graciously extended her hand.

里里外外 (lǐlǐwàiwài) means inside and outside of a person, a household or an establishment.

这件事, 里里外外的人都知道了.
Zhèi jiàn shì, lǐlǐwàiwài de rén dōu zhīdào le.
Everybody around already knows about this.

来来回回 (láiláihuíhuí) means going back and forth.

他来来回回找了三次.
Tā láiláihuíhuí zhǎo le sān cì.
He went back and forth searching (for it) three times.

来来往往 (láiláiwǎngwǎng) means going to-and-fro.

街上来来往往的人很多.
Jiē shàng láiláiwǎngwǎng de rén hěn duō.
On the street many people are coming and going.